It’s been an exciting few weeks for social media junkies. There have been a slew of Facebook changes, including Facebook hashtags and embedded photos in comment threads and now Instagram has announced native video functionality.

Key details:

Videos are 15 seconds long (more than double Vine’s parameters)

Instagram has had 13 brand new filters designed just for video. Yes, they all have funky names.

Users can choose an engaging cover frame to ensure their most engaging moment is featured on the stream

Functionality is much like Vine – push and hold a button to record, release to pause.

The videos will show up natively in the Instagram feed and be available on the web, just like photos are

Instagram has created cinematic stabilization – this means your previously-shaky videos can be stabilized by uploading them to Instagram.

This was a smart move for Instagram. This will allow for functionality that Facebook users have been missing from Vine – embedded videos on Facebook along with easily-available web-based content. Since Instagram does not natively embed on Twitter anymore, it’s likely that this trend will continue for Instagram videos. However, this new video feature for Instagram will win in a way that Vine cannot – by embedding videos natively on the Instagram feed and within the Instagram app, users are able to continue as they were before with minimal behaviour change required. There’s no barrier to use – all users need to do is update their app. One miss is that, like Instagram photos, users are unable to embed content in blogs (like this one).

Will you use video on Instagram? I can’t wait. It’s available….right now. Check out my first Instagram video here.